Here’s how sensitive those liberal snowflakes are…
Some guy in California got offended over a definition in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary. How absurd. They’re just words, you wimpy, tree-hugging…
Oh, wait. It wasn’t a liberal. It was a right-wing white man. And he wasn’t so much “offended” as “screaming death threats.”
The guy was furious over Merriam-Webster’s entry on gender, and in his transphobic zeal, he sent multiple intimidating messages to the publisher and said the dictionary’s creators “should be hunted down and shot.”
Now, if a progressive had complained about a dictionary definition, we would hear diatribes about cancel culture and hypersensitivity. Instead, an easily riled conservative promises violence, and it’s all whatevs.
You see, we’ve come to both expect and accept the right of conservatives to shriek threats over tiny offenses. It is the progressives who are usually portrayed as dangerous zealots. So when a conservative freaks out, we don’t tell him to stop whining or quit trying to bully people. We instead say, “You’re right to be scared. Let’s stop the world so you can feel more comfy.”
But this coddling comes at a high price. And I’m not just talking about the damage to our culture or the harm inflicted on individuals—that’s real, of course. But what I’m referring to are the actual dollars involved. There’s big money getting torched because of all this conservative babying.
For example, conservatives are not big fans of diversity. About half of Republicans believe that America’s changing demographics will create “mostly negative outcomes.”
But numerous studies have shown the positive effects of diversity on the economy. And if anything, America is losing out because we don’t promote diversity enough.
You see, a recent report stated that “no matter how you measure it, a lack of diversity within American companies comes with a hefty price tag” that is calculated to be in the trillions of dollars. This is because less diversity leads to “less innovation, weaker revenue and cash flows, and lower employee retention.” Having nothing but white people in charge “limits national economies and reduces GDP.”
It gets even worse when talking about immigration.
As we all know, the Great Replacement Theory has charmed its way into the hearts and minds of conservatives, with the result that over two-thirds of Republicans now say that “the recent change in our national demographic makeup is not a natural change but has been motivated by progressive and liberal leaders actively trying to leverage political power by replacing more conservative white voters.”
Let’s set aside the paranoia, ignorance, and bigotry inherent in this philosophy. Instead, please note that once again, Republicans are on the exact opposite side of reality. From a purely economic standpoint, immigration is key to America’s financial well-being. This country will collapse into a smoldering ruin of desolate landscapes, shanty towns, and hollowed-out cities if conservatives succeed in cutting off immigration.
So what can be done to convince conservatives that immigrants and racial minorities are beneficial to America’s future?
Well, a new study suggests that if Republicans shut off Fox News and look at moderate media outlets, they can “be open to absorbing unflattering news about politicians they support and can change their minds about hot-button issues.”
OK, that’s not much cause for optimism. The researchers say that right-wing channels offer “a distorted picture of the world that pushes conservatives deeper into support for extreme ideological positions and politicians.” But their solution is to hold out hope that Republicans stumble upon MSNBC once in a while to temper their zeal for a white-supremacist theocracy.
Listen, even Republicans concede that “the right wants a strongman daddy figure,” and that the GOP is “a party that exists increasingly as a vehicle for the grievances of the angriest, oldest folks.”
We can safely theorize, therefore, that few conservatives will ever forsake their beloved screeching deluge of “white nationalism, authoritarianism, bigotry, and brutal economic exploitation—and [a] casual use of fearmongering and evidence-free conspiracy theories to advance ideas.”
So in the meantime, we will continue to mollify, placate, and appease those god-loving patriots who issue death threats over dictionary definitions and want to hang liberals in public. We will tell them that their fears are justified, even admirable, and that America never has to change.
And they will continue to believe that they could not be more right.
Featured image by Josar/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
